“You and the baby are not distractions. You’re his family!”
Georgia’s fierceness frightened Dawn. “Georgia. I’m begging you. Don’t tell him! He worries about me and the baby enough already.” Her eyes filled. There was a time to be gentle and a time to be blunt, even if it bordered on cruelty. “I don’t want Jason coming home in a body bag.”
Georgia closed her eyes in anguish.
“Pray. That’s what I need you to do, Georgia. That’s why I came to you first. I have to get Granny and Mom to work together and help me through this. I have to get them in one place. And they’ve never been able to talk. I have to be the bridge this time, not the wall between them.”
Dawn called Mitch at his office. She told him everything and what she wanted to do. “I have to spend time with them both, alone. Can you help that to happen?”
He cleared his throat before speaking. “You sure you don’t want to have your grandmother come to our place?”
“Granny will do better in her own territory. I’m going to call her and have her call Mom to invite her out there. Don’t tell Mom anything yet, okay?”
“I’m not sure how your mom will do. I don’t think either one of them realizes how they’ve pitted themselves against each other.”
“God got me home, Mitch. He’ll get us through all the rest.”
“What about Chris?”
“You can tell him after Mom leaves for Jenner.” She wiped tears from her cheeks. “Tell him I’ll see him in a few days and we can talk then. And…” She had to swallow and draw a slow breath before she could go on. “Pray. Pray hard.”
“I am. Right now and every minute from here on out.” He made a hoarse sound. “Pita?” He spoke gruffly. “I’ve always loved you like you were my own flesh and blood.”
“I know. Dad.”
Dawn called Granny. “I want to spend a few days with you and Mom at Jenner.”
“When do you plan to come home? spring? The baby will be-”
“I’m here, Granny.”
“Here? Where? Alexander Valley?”
“I’m staying with Georgia right now. Mom doesn’t know I’m home yet.”
“Why didn’t you come out and stay with me?”
“I wanted to see my mother-in-law, too. And I was pretty tired when I got here.”
“Well, come now. We can visit for a few days and then call your mom.”
She needed to make things clear. “I’m not coming out until Mom’s there. I don’t want her feelings hurt.”
“I would never hurt your mother’s feelings.”
“You’d never hurt her intentionally, Granny, and neither would I; but we both do it all the time, and it has to stop.”
“What’s happened, Dawn? Something’s wrong. Tell me.”
“When the three of us are together, Granny, we’re all going to talk.”
“I’ll call your mother as soon as we’re off the phone.”
“Let me know when she gets to Jenner. Then I’ll come.”
Georgia sat on the sofa, waiting. When Dawn sat down, Georgia took her hand. “So?”
“I don’t know where to start, Georgia. I’m not a psychologist. I don’t know what’s going to happen at Jenner.”
Georgia enfolded her in her arms and leaned back into the sofa so Dawn’s head rested against her shoulder. “God didn’t bring you home to let you down, honey. And I’m going to pray for a miracle.”
Dawn closed her eyes. “We need one.”
Jenner by the Sea
52
Hildemara picked up the phone and punched in Carolyn’s number. Her son-in-law answered. “Mitch, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Dawn’s home. She’s staying with Georgia Steward.”
“I know. She called me at the office a little while ago. I’ll get Carolyn.” He put her on hold. His abruptness surprised her.
Hildie chewed her lip. She pulled out a chair at the kitchen nook table and sat staring out at the Russian River. It was running high, as it often did this time of year. Hildie hunched deeper into her terry-cloth bathrobe.
Winters had always been too long out here on the coast, but bearable as long as Trip had been with her. Then, even if the roads closed and phone and power lines went down, Hildie hadn’t been alone. She and Trip joked about “roughing it” without lights, heat, television, or stove, like it was a grand adventure.
The sense of adventure died with Trip. While Hildie was still reeling from Trip’s death, Carolyn suggested Hildie sell the house and move into town. It had seemed utterly insensitive. Give up the Jenner house? after all the work Trip had put into it? He’d spent five years-and more money than they’d paid for the place-improving it and bringing it up to his standards. Throwing it all away seemed disloyal. She said as much to Carolyn, and her daughter didn’t mention moving again until a few months ago, after Hildie had taken a fall.
This year, winter had become a black hole sucking Hildie down into a vortex of despair. The last time Carolyn came out “for a visit,” she broached the subject of moving again. Hildie told her
Unease filled Hildemara. Had Carolyn called Dawn and enlisted her help in getting old Granny to give up her home and move? Why else would her granddaughter fly to California when she was eight months pregnant and then insist the three of them get together at Jenner and talk? Hildemara felt her anger boiling.
“Mom?” Carolyn sounded breathless. “Are you all right?”
“Why wouldn’t I be all right?”
“You never call unless something’s wrong.”
Was that true? When had she last called Carolyn? two weeks? a month? “Nothing is wrong. Not unless you said something to Dawn about trying to move me into an old folks’ home. She’s
“At Jenner?” Carolyn sounded shocked.
“No. Not Jenner. In town. She’s staying with Georgia. She called a few minutes ago. She wants you to come to Jenner so the three of us can talk.”
“I don’t understand. Is it the baby?”
“She said she’s fine.”
